Saying goodbye is hard, especially when you’re a child. This simple story from Todd Parr, helps children understand and process their feelings of grief when they are separated from someone they love.
Fish has lost his best friend and he knows that he won’t see him again. An unseen narrator talks to him gently about how this might make him feel.
He learns that sadness and anger are totally normal emotional responses and he may also want to quietly hide himself away. Eating and sleeping may seem impossible and he may even try to pretend that nothing has happened at all. But eventually the cloud will lift and he will cherish all the special times he had with his friend. He’ll inevitably still have up and down days but he will be able to move forward and life will start to feel good again.
